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Sharing Your Land with Prairie Wildlife

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Sharing Your Land with Prairie Wildlife Sharing Your Land with Prairie Wildlife Scott W. Gillihan, David J. Hanni, Scott W. Hutchings, Tony Leukering, Ted Toombs, and Tammy VerCauteren Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Sharing Your Land with Prairie Wildlife Scott W. Gillihan, David J. Hanni, Scott W. Hutchings, Tony Leukering, Ted Toombs, and Tammy VerCauteren 14500 Lark Bunting Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Lane Brighton, CO 80603 (303) 659-4348 www.rmbo.org AboutIntroduction the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (RMBO): Our mission is to conserve Rocky Mountain, Great Plains, and Intermountain West birds and their habitats through research, monitoring, education, and outreach. We conduct on-the-ground conservation in cooperation with other private organizations and government agencies responsible for managing areas and programs important for birds. We also work with private landowners and managers to encourage practices that foster good land stewardship. Much of our work is designed to increase understanding of birds and their habitats by educating children, teachers, natural resource managers, and the general public. Because birds do not recognize political boundaries, and may even spend most of their lives outside of the United States, RMBO works to bring a unified approach to conservation among states and countries, and many of our projects focus on issues associated with winter grounds, especially those in Mexico. At the core of our conservation work is bird population monitoring. Only through long-term monitoring can we identify which species are in need of help, and evaluate our success at protecting or recovering them. About this manual: This third edition of this manual (formerly entitled Sharing Your Land With Shortgrass Prairie Birds) is about how to help birds and other wildlife make a living from the land while you do the same. Prairie wildlife species have gone about their business of reproducing, feeding, mating, and dying for thousands and thousands of years. They continue to live out their lives all around you, on land you provide. However, the populations of some birds and other wildlife species are declining, for reasons that are not clear. A little assistance from you can help keep declining wildlife populations on the land, along with maintaining the more common species. This manual offers information about what these spe- cies need and how you can provide for those needs on your land. Although the focus of this third edition is still the shortgrass prairie, it includes information on species found in other parts of the Great Plains, and most of the concepts presented are applicable to grasslands beyond the shortgrass prairie. Also, while we have added discussions of five species that are not birds, we have retained the introductory material from previous editions when birds were the focus. The man- ual begins with some basic information about the shortgrass prairie and about bird biology. It goes on to present general management guidelines, followed by more specific guidelines for some prairie birds and other wildlife in need of conservation. This is followed by information about agencies and organizations that can help you with technical and financial assistance. Finally, three appendices provide information on simple structures, techniques, and equipment modifications that can benefit birds and other wildlife. LaSalle We hope you’ll find this information useful. Please contact us with questions or comments about the Adams manual. Fund Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory A Short History of Shortgrass Ecology— The shortgrass prairie lies along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, from New Mexico north to Alberta, Canada. Storm fronts traveling east across the continent from the Pacific Ocean lose their moisture as they climb over the Rockies, and the resulting rain shadow creates the driest conditions found on the Great Plains. These semi-arid conditions support only limited plant growth, and the ankle-high vegetation of the shortgrass prairie is the result. Traveling east, precipitation increases, and shortgrass gives way to the taller mixed-grass and tallgrass prairies. Shortgrass prairie is dominated by two low-growing warm-season grasses, blue grama and buffalograss; western wheatgrass is also present, along with prickly-pear, yucca, winterfat, and cholla. Sandsage prairie is found where sandy soils occur, and is Shortgrass prairie birds breed and winter throughout the cross- hatched areas dominated by sand sagebrush and grasses such as sand bluestem and prairie sand-reed. Pockets of mixed- grass prairie (including needle-and-thread and side-oats Because of the forces of fire, grazing, and climate, grama) and tallgrass prairie (including big bluestem, little shortgrass prairie birds historically had access to a bluestem, and switchgrass) are found where moisture is patchwork of vegetation in a variety of growth stages adequate, typically in low-lying areas. and conditions. Each bird species could move about the prairie until it found the habitats most suitable The shortgrass prairie landscape has been shaped for its nesting and foraging. Ideally, modern prairie over time by the forces of climate, grazing, and management would continue to create this patchwork fire. Precipitation, for example, is lower and more of vegetation by duplicating the timing, intensity, and unpredictable than in either the mixed-grass or tallgrass landscape distribution of the natural forces that shaped prairies. Droughts are not uncommon, and vegetation the prairie. However, the primary management activity growth is variable from year to year. Before widespread on native shortgrass prairie today, livestock grazing, settlement by European-Americans, a major grazing tends to spread out its effects evenly, resulting in a force came from the expanding, contracting, and landscape that varies little from one area to another. shifting prairie dog colonies. Herds of bison, pronghorn, The patches of habitat are very similar in vegetative and elk wandered widely but at times concentrated in growth and condition. Shortgrass birds no longer small areas, so the impact of their grazing and trampling have access to the variety of habitats that they had was spread unevenly over the landscape. The result historically, and it is increasingly difficult for some of such animal activities was that, at any given time, species to find the particular habitat conditions that some areas were grazed intensively and others not at meet their needs. all, creating a diversity of habitat conditions across the landscape. Little is known about the ecological role of fire in shortgrass, although fires were probably never A tradition of stewardship— very frequent because of the lack of dense grass as During the 1800s, the U.S. government gave much of fuel. Humans have used fire as a management tool in the Great Plains grasslands to homesteaders and the shortgrass to improve grazing conditions for livestock railroads (who eventually sold much of it to individuals) by removing woody vegetation, cacti, and accumulated to encourage westward expansion. Those landowners litter. However, the grasses recover slowly, requiring plowed, planted, and ran cattle on the prairie. Today, 2–3 years. about 70% of the shortgrass prairie remains in private Sharing Your Land with Prairie Wildlife 1 Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory ownership. Landowners in the shortgrass region have Bird conservation— a long tradition of careful and effective management of Together, the shortgrass, mixed-grass, and tallgrass the land (stewardship), a necessity in a dry region where prairies cover about one-fifth of North America. In so little vegetation grows. Careful stewardship includes spite of their large size, the prairies support a bird maintaining healthy ecosystems upon which livestock, community with few members. Only nine bird species wildlife, and humans depend. As a landowner, you live are restricted to the Great Plains (eight of the nine close to the land, and recognize that abusing it reduces are covered in this publication), and only 20 others its productivity. Land that is less productive is less are closely linked with it. These 29 species are a profitable. And because abused land affects not only the small fraction of the approximately 650 bird species current owners but future generations, you nurture it that breed in North America north of Mexico. Such to leave a lasting legacy of healthy land. a small group of birds is easily overlooked, especially in comparison with the more numerous and colorful Because of the semi-arid climate and low human species of forested lands. population density, less of the shortgrass prairie has been altered than either the mixed-grass or tallgrass As a result, population declines among shortgrass bird prairies. Less than 50% of the original shortgrass species have been largely overlooked until recently. Part prairie has been converted to other land-cover types. of this neglect was due to widespread concern about By comparison, cropland and other land-cover types well-publicized population declines among birds of now cover about 98% of the original tallgrass prairie. eastern forests. However, grassland birds are now the As prairie is lost, so are the plants and animals that are highest conservation priority—among North American adapted to it. Prominent among the animals that are birds, they have shown the steepest population declines declining are some species of prairie birds. of any group. With 70% of shortgrass prairie habitat in private ownership, assistance from landowners is critical to prairie bird conservation. Basic Bird Biology Food— large hawk or owl can eat over a thousand mice and Some birds eat fruits, some eat seeds, and some eat voles per year, adding up to many thousands over the animals, but most birds eat insects. Even some species course of its lifetime. A pair of Ferruginous Hawks that rarely consume insects will eat them during the will kill about 500 ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and breeding season for the protein and calcium they other rodents each summer to feed themselves and provide.
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